


Courting Disaster

by Tethysian



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Coming of Age, Emo Kylo Ren, Emotional Manipulation, Fantastic Racism, Fluff, Gold digger Hux, Han and Leia being awesome parents, Horny Teenagers, Idiots in Love, M/M, Meeting the Parents, They're still not nice people, Tiny Gay Wizard Power Couple
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-18 01:07:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5892247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tethysian/pseuds/Tethysian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux and Kylo start dating at the start of fifth year. Hux regrets it almost immediately.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I kept waiting for the influx of Harry Potter AUs and then figured I might as well pitch in. Way, way back when I first got into fanfiction HP was my first fandom, but that was over a decade ago and I haven't open up one of the books since DH was released. Please let me know if I make any mistakes and I'll see if I can fix them.
> 
> My favourite parts of the Harry Potter books were always the in-between bits where they just futz around the school and do their homework and get into trouble, so that's what this will be.
> 
> I figure this takes place some undetermined amount of time after the events of Harry Potter - I might allude to events or people from Harry Potter, but this universe will be inhabited by characters from Star Wars canon. I'll introduce more of them as I go along.

The first time they kissed Hux let his mouth run away with him.

It was at the start of the term, just a few days after their first meet-and-greet on the Hogwarts Express when the senior prefects had outlined the do's and don't's for them, and all fifth year prefects had been summoned to the prefect's lounge.

This get-together was decidedly less official. Despite the late hour Hux had shown up expecting rules and regulations, some light scheduling, and he had been sorely disappointed.

The room was filled with students, a third of them people Hux had known since their very first arrival at Hogwarts, when they were all tiny first-years shivering in the rain under their cloaks and pointy hats.

Phasma, the Hufflepuff prefect, and he had spent most of the train ride getting to know each other, and he sensed an ally in her. With any luck they would make a good match for head boy and head girl come seventh year, but he would see how matters evolved before he committed to the idea.

Her counterpart was a tawny-haired and loud-mouthed boy best forgotten. Likewise the Gryffindors Hux only knew in passing and he couldn't recall a single noteworthy thing about either one of them other than that they were both on the Quidditch team.

The only other student worth mentioning was the Ravenclaw boy. Frankly, he couldn't fathom why Kylo Organa had been chosen as a prefect.

Hux would hardly have called himself a people person, but he knew how to get along with others, or, more importantly, whom to get along with. Kylo, meanwhile was downright antisocial. He seldom spoke to others, and when he did he was rarely helpful. Even the possibility that he had been chosen purely on merit of his academic achievements seemed less likely than a case of good old nepotism.

There was more underage drinking going on in the prefects' lounge than the rest of the student body would have suspected. The seventh-year prefects didn't appear to have any qualms about smuggling in butterbeer by the case load and ushering them on the junior students.

The point was that everyone was a little tipsy. Except for Hux who had been appropriated by Head Boy Jerjerrod and his crew forced to take part in some sort of ritualistic initiation involving far too much firewhiskey. In short, Hux, was rather a lot drunk, on the alcohol and the sugarquills which seemed to spawn in endless supply from the depths of Phasma's bookbag.

Afterwards he couldn't quite recall how it was that his mouth had run him right onto Kylo's - soft, red, and as gentle as it looked - or when he had gone from _objectively considering it_ to actually having Organa's tongue in his mouth, tasting faintly of spun sugar and liqueur.

They ended up necking in a secluded corner, away from the rest of the group who were preoccupied with a game of truth or dare by the fireplace. Everything felt a little muddled, but in a nice way, and when they pulled apart to catch their breaths Kylo was still leaning into his space, lips parted and eyes darting to the side and back to Hux's mouth but never meeting his for longer than a second.

His long hair was caught under Hux's hand cupping his face. Soft in contrast to the sharp angles of his body; the broad jutting shoulder under Hux's arm and the strong fingers splayed over his ribs.

Hux didn't know what he had expected when he singled Organa out, so he shouldn't really have been surprised by any of it.

"Was that your first kiss?" he asked. He watched Kylo's lashes until he glanced up, just for a second before he looked off to the side.

"Yes."

Hux closed his eyes. "Good," he said, and because he apparently didn't have any brain-to-mouth filter, he followed that up with; "It's a shame about your blood."

 _Then_ Kylo looked at him and his eyes which had been warm and deep just a moment ago were hard as flint.

And then it was just as well that Hux was absolutely sauced because it numbed some of the pain when Kylo broke his nose.

\-----

Hux didn't really expect Organa to visit him in the infirmary the next day, but he kept an eye out for him nonetheless.

After he was done with the homework his classmates had dropped off he turned over a fresh roll of parchment and wrote it all out in yeses and noes - weighing the pros against the cons the way he knew his father eventually would.

There were a great deal of things Hux had been forced to re-evaluate for his fifth year. The upcoming OWLs and advanced courses meant focusing his efforts in those areas that would serve him best in his chosen career, and this was only one of many of lists like it.

Kylo was the heir of one of the oldest and most influential pureblood families in the world. His grandfather was considered one of the most powerful wizards in recent history. Of course, on the other hand his father was a Muggle nobody.

Dubious father aside, the Organa-Skywalker family was notoriously wealthy. Not only was Kylo's mother the daughter of former Minister for Magic Amidala, but also the adopted daughter and sole heir of the House of Organa.

Then there had been the whole business about her long-lost twin brother. It was all a bit before Hux's time, but the tabloids still talked about it; separated at birth, re-united at Hogwarts; all very dramatic and very good publicity when you were in politics.

They were old money, through and through - as opposed to the Hux lineage which, while squeaky clean as far as blood purity went, had never managed to make it out of middle-class comfort.

Leia Organa had so enthralled the wizarding world at large that most of the faculty at Hogwarts still thought the sun shone out of her son's arse, certainly through no effort of his own. Most notably Professor Snoke who was the Slytherin head of house yet made no secret of his blatant favouritism towards a Ravenclaw boy.

Minister Organa had been a staple of the Minsitry of Magic for decades - a connection that would be invaluable for the entry-level ministry job Hux would have waiting for him upon his graduation. The fact that she was an outspoken Muggle-supporter might be overlooked in this instance.

Even discounting his heritage, Kylo had always shown every indication of growing into a powerful wizard. The beams of greenhouse one were still scorched from when his inferno of an _incendio_ had nearly started a controlled forest fire during their first year. (Professor Nu had lost her eyebrows but she'd been so impressed she hadn't even deducted him any points.)

Of course that was also a testament to his infamous lack of control over his magic - or his temper, for that matter. Did that still count as a positive?

The list grew more and more confused the further along Hux got.

In the end the he rolled up the parchment and put it away in his bag with the rest of his things, lest he be tempted to buffer it out with points such as _tall_ , and _beautiful eyes_ , and _isolated_.

\-----

They had Herbology with the Ravenclaws first period, Monday morning, more or less the same slot they'd had for the past four years. The weather was still warm, even this far north, but the early hour had left the grass wet and blanketed under a lingering layer of mist in the valley where the greenhouses stood. The damp was steadily seeping through the hem of Hux's trousers as he stood there waiting.

By all likelihood it would be his last year in the greenhouses. Herbology didn't exactly have any practical application in a Ministry career.

It wasn't difficult to spot Organa when he came down the hill. Like Hux, he had hit his growth spurt and now towered over most of their classmates.

Despite the mild weather and the lack of either sun or rain, he had the hood of his robes pulled over his head, the tails flapping angrily about his legs as he descended down the hill.

He looked like a misplaced dementor and Hux shook his head to himself.

Organa gave Hux a wary look but deigned to stop when he waved at him.

"What do you want?" He asked sullenly, scowling.

"I want to apologise for the other night. I'd had too much to drink and I spoke very rudely."

Kylo regarded him silently for a moment. He had a tendency to look like he was pouting when he was frowning. "I'm not sorry I broke your nose," he said at last, but he tilted his head to the side and did, at least, look a little curious. "Does it still hurt?"

"No, but mending the cartilage hurt _a lot_ , if that makes you more likely to forgive me."

Kylo 's mouth quirked at the corners, pleased with himself.

"And I got a week of detention for being inebriated which isn't a great start to the year, for a prefect no less."

Someone else would have chuckled or smiled or given some indication that social communication had taken place. Organa stood shock-still and looked Hux down squarely.

Kylo Organa had always been rather peculiar, but had become even more so while Hux hadn't been paying attention. He was wearing a standard uniform - barely. His robes looked neither plain nor suitable for work, although they were certainly black, and there was no way those boots were regulation; they nearly came up to his knees, although they were rather prettily laced, Hux conceded.

"What?" he asked, sure he had missed something the other boy said.

"I said, is that all?" Organa repeated. He looked mildly put off, still sulky as he shifted restlessly from one foot to another as if he wasn't sure whether he ought to leave or not. Painfully awkward.

"No." Hux swallowed - clasped his fingers tightly behind his back and ignored the way his face threatened to spontaneously combust."There's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up, I thought I could... buy you a drink. To say I'm sorry."

Organa looked off to the side again - thank Merlin! - and spared the both of them the pain of having to face each other.

"Okay," he said. "See you then." He shuffled off immediately and Hux could release the breath he felt like he had been holding all morning.

"Greenhouse six today!" he called after the Ravenclaw who stopped in his tracks, shoulders hunched forward, and swivelled around to head in the other direction.

Maybe he ought to have waited until Friday before he asked, or at least a little bit closer to the weekend.

More students were crossing the grounds approaching the greenhouses for the first period, and he waited for his own throng of Slytherins to catch up with him, resigning himself to a full school week's worth of anxiety.

They spent a very long hour, and four more days after that, pretending not to look at each other.

\-----

By the time Saturday came around Hux had pushed through anxiety right into detachment; a vastly superior state of mind as far as productivity went, and he was fairly confident he would be able to get through their date without embarrassing himself.

Hux had never actually _dated_ anyone. His only experience on the matter was from fourth year when he had been forced to explain to Rosa McKane that he couldn't go out with her because he wasn't interested in witches, and one unbearable lunch with Lindsey Abbot which Hux had ended immediately when the other boy started stuttering and blushing whenever he tried to speak with him.

Organa neither stuttered nor blushed, and even if he had Hux probably would have suffered through it.

They had arrived early enough to find a private corner in the Three Broomsticks and Hux divided his attention between Kylo and a group of his classmates who had wandered in and were whispering and grinning and giving him encouraging thumbs-up from a few tables over. Hux ignored them as best he could while he tried to make sense of Kylo - not sentimental, but sensitive - and determine what soft of a boyfriend the other boy would have wanted. Not sensitive, surely, but Hux could do attentive.

His sleeves were too long and even indoors he wore his cowl pulled over his head while he hunched unattractively over his tankard. It was a pity because Hux knew for a fact that he had excellent posture when he felt like it.

On top of that he was possibly the least academically inclined Ravenclaw Hux had ever met. He discovered this when he brought up _Spellman's Syllabary_ and Kylo looked at him blankly.

"Ancient Runes?" Hux tried. "You do know we share that class?"

"Oh," Kylo said, flippantly. His black-painted nails flitted restlessly over the condensation on his glass. "I just picked it to meet the minimum requirement, I don't really find it interesting. I thought it would be less boring than Arithmancy."

Hux gaped at him. Kylo took no notice and pushed his chair back to get up.

"I'm hungry, I'm going to get some snacks from the bar. Do you want anything?"

"Uh, sure. Cauldron cakes or pumpkin pasties if they have them."

He watched Organa leave and his gaze took him past the Slytherin-occupied table where Mitaka waved wildly at him and mouthed _what happened?_

Who the hell knew? Arithmancy was Hux's favourite subject.

\-----

They took the long route back to the castle, passing by the Shrieking Shack although no one had heard as much as a peep out of it for decades now and it was kind of losing its air of mystique. Nonetheless, Kylo looked at it longingly as they walked past.

"It's supposed to be the most haunted house in Britain," he said, "but no one has ever taken any readings on ghost activity there."

"That's great," Hux said absently. He pointed at a little clearing by the road. "Let's go over there."

The forest that encroached on the path didn't offer much in the way of seating, but there was a fallen tree at about waist height that Kylo didn't hesitate to sit down on. It bounced lightly under his weight but seemed to hold well enough even as Hux examined with distaste.

When he looked up he saw Kylo watching him with amusement on his face. "You don't like the outdoors, do you?"

"What's there to like?" Hux sneered, but he sat down. The trunk swayed again and he found that it wasn't completely objectionable.

They other boy's face was intimately close to his, and Hux met his lips with some relief, glad that he didn't have to work for this as well. That 'date' had been quite enough struggling for one day, thank you.

He couldn't quite remember every detail of the last time, or how far they had gotten, but small pockets of memories resurfaced - the scent of Kylo's hair or the soft sound he made in the back of his throat.

Kylo on the other hand kissed him as if he was picking up where they left off, with an intensity that seemed at odds with his otherwise aloof demeanour.  
  
His mouth tasted sweetly of the butterbeer and his hand rested lightly on Hux's knee, mostly for balance probably, but he liked it there. The hood game off with a tug and Hux fingered at the curling ends of his hair and found it as soft as he recalled.

He blushed furiously at the suddenly memory of having his nose buried in those curls when his tongue had been in Kylo's ear.

His fingers brushed over the cartilage and the other boy drew back with a shudder. Hux blinked at him, hand stupidly suspended in the air before he lowered it. The tip of Kylo's ear through his hair was lightly pink.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Um, it seemed like the natural conclusion to the afternoon."

"No, why are you doing it with me? I'm not popular or pretty, or even very well-liked."

"You're..." Hux stalled, considering how much honesty he was supposed to employ in this situation. Powerful? Malleable? From a good family? Surprisingly cute? "Special," he finished lamely.

"Special enough to make up for my _poor blood_?" Kylo sneered. He pulled back further and widened the gap between them.

"I did say I was sorry about that," Hux said, scowling at him. He resisted the urge to fold his arms over his chest in defence.

"It's true, though, isn't it? It doesn't matter how prestigious my mother's end of the family is, I'm still a half-blood at best."

Hux scoffed. "Supremacist views on blood-purity are completely archaic. There has never been any evidence to suggest muggle-born witches and wizards are less powerful than purebloods, it's just less likely. Without them we would all have succumbed to genetic defects by now. If anything, we ought to be concerned about wizards breeding with Muggles or squibs who are _confirmed_ not to have any magical ability."

Kylo frowned. "So what you're saying is, I'm worse than a mudblood because my daddy is a Muggle."

"Nobody's perfect. You're talented and I wouldn't be ashamed to be seen with you in public."

As far as confessions went even Hux thought that was less than flattering. Kylo regarded him silently for a moment, worrying his lip between his teeth. Hux fully expected him to flounce off in a huff, but the other boy abruptly leaned forward and pressed his lips against Hux's.

Hux froze in surprise.

"Acceptable," Kylo said. His hands framed Hux's face as he softly continued to litter kisses over is mouth, already showing marked improvement since the first time. Hux's hand came to rest at the dip of his spine as he slowly settled into the kiss - flummoxed but more than willing to go along with it.

They stayed there for some time before Hux finally pulled away. "Come on, we should get back. Someone is bound to walk by sooner or later."

He drew the other boy up by his hand and nothing could have prepared him for the first time Kylo Organa smiled at him. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kylo reveals his questionable interests and the Gryffindores make an appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Mood music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTMWgOduFM) for anyone who wants it. 
> 
> I listen to it quite a lot while I write, and the [Shatner version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0) because it's awesome.

"Would you like me to call you Brendol?"

The question took Hux by surprise and he almost forgot that he was supposed to be sulking.

They were at the top of the astronomy tower - in the middle of the night - and he was freezing his arse of. He had though the cold might be worth it when Kylo suggested they meet up there, but then he had shown up with his _actual star charts_ and asking for the time of Hux's birth, and it had just deteriorated form there.

Trust Kylo to only act like a Ravenclaw when it was least called for, and that he was possibly the only person who had _ever_ attended Hogwarts who didn't know that 'astronomy tower' was practically synonymous with 'make-out spot'.

"No," he said. Then, considering, "I don't know, no one calls me that."

"I don't think I would have remembered that was your name if you hadn't introduced yourself on the train," Kylo admitted. He didn't look away from his telescope. "Why don't you use it?"

He shrugged, "It's my dad's name. Not even he calls me that."

"What about your mom?"

"My mother's dead."

That had Kylo lowering the telescope. "I'm sorry." His large brown eyes wide and alarmed, as if he had somehow been the one responsible for the untimely death of Mrs Deichtire Hux more than a decade ago - and Hux couldn't help smiling even through the familiar mother-shaped lump in his chest.

"That's alright, it was a long time ago."

Kylo had an empathic compulsion to make others feel better that Hux didn't quite understand, and he could see the gears turning in his head now - the way he worried his lips between his teeth.

"My parents call me Ben."

"Ben?" he repeated incredulously.

"It's a muggle name."

"I can tell."

"It's the one they gave me, but I wanted to go with my second name."

"Understandable." Hux might not have been too fond of _Brendol_ , but at least it wasn't a muggle name.

"You'd think so," Kylo sniffed. He returned his attention to the telescope and directed his scowl up at the stars. "They still refuse to respect my wishes. I hate them sometimes."

"Uh-huh," Hux said. Frankly he'd heard of better reasons to hate one's parents, but if Kylo wanted to distance himself his, Hux wasn't going to discourage him. "Wait, how did you get the professors to agree to that?"

"I'm not sure. Professor Snoke talked them into changing the registry."

"What is going on with you and professor Snoke?" Hux asked, surprising himsel with the vitriol in his voice. "You're not even in Slytherin."

"I think he expected me to be sorted into Slytherin, but he doesn't care about that."

Hux rolled his eyes. Of course not. Why would Snoke let a minor detail like house loyalty get between himself and sucking up to an Organa? And of course Kylo wouldn't find anything unusual about people falling over themselves to help him.

Thinking about it only made him more annoyed than he had been before and he shivered under his robes resentfully, tucking his hands more tightly into his sleeves.

That finally drew Kylo's attention away from the cosmos. "You're shivering," he stated simply.

"Am I? Outdoors in the middle of the night in October. Imagine that."

"You should have worn more." He put down the telescope and inched a little closer to Hux on the low bench they were sitting on. Had it always been this uncomfortable? Hux wasn't sure he could even feel his feet anymore, but he shifted around to allow for Kylo's skinny knees and too-long limbs as he wound his blue and bronze scarf around Hux's neck on top of his Slytherin-green.

"I assumed we would be coming up with other ways to keep warm," Hux said pointedly, glaring at Kylo who grinned and leaned closer.

Hux angled his face to meet his lips but refused to budge out of his protective cocoon further than that. Kylo seemed happy enough to plaster himself against him instead. He leaned into him, fingers gripping Hux's arm which he had tucked around his knees because the bench was apparently designed with first years or house elves in mind.

Kylo pulled back, eyes fluttering open slowly, his saliva on Hux's lips stinging slightly in the cold.

"Uranus is retrograde."

Hux hesitated. "Are you trying to be dirty?" He was relieved when Kylo blushed in response.

"No. It's supposed to stimulate awakenings and future prospects, especially in the pivotal days. Mmm, personal liberation, self reflection, making sure you're on the right path; that kind of thing." He kissed Hux again, finally getting the point, so it took Hux a while to catch up with what he was saying.

"Wait, what?"

\-----

There were other things as well, things that really ought to have been on The List, but that Hux only found out about later. Like the fact that Kylo's first elective subject was _divination_.

Hux nearly has a crisis when he found out about the Xylomancy club. Of all the ridiculous nonsense.

Hux would have dumped him on the spot but at that point they had been dating for over a month and he had simply put too much work into it all by then.

Sure, Hux was less than proud of his Muggle Studies period, but that served its own purpose. He was not about to have anyone call him _ignorant_ when he presented his Anti-Muggle separatist manifesto.

That whole business with the return of the Dark Lord had put everyone on high alert, and the backlash against wizards and witches with _traditional values_ , was, quite frankly, disproportionate and unfair.

He was hiding out in the prefect's lounge when Phasma found him, flat on his back on one of the couches with his legs hanging over the arm rest. Someone needed to address the lack of proper legroom when it came the furniture.  
  
The prefect's lounge, while not overly large, was a comfortable room. There were bookcases lining the walls, filled mostly with course books and discarded notebooks and knickknacks from previous generations. At the centre of the room there was a large table intended for study or meetings, and a roaring fireplace surrounded by plush seating in browns and foresty greens.

One wall was almost entirely taken up by a large and absurd tapestry of a wizard dancing with a unicorn, surrounded by a plethora of other woodland creatures, presumably to go with the view over the forbidden forest from the large bay window.

Photographs and portraits of previous head- boys and girls were vying for space on every spare inch of wall. Somewhere amongst them he would find Leia Organa - head girl, Quidditch champion, future minister, and overall over-achiever.

Brendol Hux Sr. had been passed over for head boy and never stopped complaining about it.

The best thing about the prefect's lounge, of course, was that it was far less crowded than the common rooms, which made it a perfect place for when you wanted to be alone, or make out with your boyfriend. Unless someone else had the same idea and barged in while you were in the middle of things.

"Is that you, Hux?"

"Xylomancy," Hux mumbled.

Phasma's shock-blonde head appeared in his field of vision when she leaned over the back of the couch. "What was that?"

"Xylomancy," he repeated. "The Xylomancy club. They prance around the forest stumbling over fallen branches and predict the future." He rubbed his fingers over his eyes. "Merlin, I can just see him, skulking through the undergrowth..." He trailed off, the image too terrible to contemplate.

Phasma sat down next to him. "You're being unusually dramatic," she said. "I assume this is about Organa."

She produced a sugar quill from somewhere and Hux gratefully accepted it. He had learned to expect them by now and suspected he was starting to have a conditioned response to seeing her.

He worried the sugary threads between his tongue and the roof of his mouth, knowing it would end in a sore tongue but it always seemed worth it at the time.

"The worst thing is," he rambled, gesticulating with the sticky quill in the air, "I'm not sure whether he actually believes in it or if he's just being, you know, _ironic_. I'm afraid to ask."

Her silence was less than helpful.

"I should never have started this. It isn't going to work out."

"You shouldn't let something as petty as _hobbies_ determine the course of your relationships, Hux." Phasma said, and it might have sounded sentimental coming from anyone else if not delivered in her fine lilting deadpan. "He's bound to have flaws, the question is whether the benefits outweigh them."

It sounded about right when she said it. Don't overlook an otherwise worthwhile investment due to some minor flaw.

Hux lifted himself up on his elbows and looked her dead in the eye. "This isn't love," he said, ignoring her faint mutter of _who said anything about love?_ "This is practicality."

\-----

Kylo didn't have friends as far as Hux could tell. He was on good terms with the other students in his house, but hardly friendly. Hux suspected anyone less intimidating would have ended up being bullied.

Hux wasn't terribly _fond_ of his own friends; he wasn't sure he was capable of fondness, to be honest, but he appreciated them. They provided support and security, both social and emotional, and despite all his hard edges, the lack of those things left Kylo vulnerable. Susceptible. Something raw and exposed about him that Hux couldn't quite put his finger on but feared someone else could take advantage of.

Something that made it difficult to see him more as an investment and less like something helpless and pitiable Hux needed to look after.

"What about Care of Magical Creatures?" he suggested.

They were walking along the grounds some time after lunch. A steady rise of shouts and cries were coming from the direction of the Quidditch pitch where a group of blurry yellow-and-black figures on broomsticks were zipping around.

Hux was pouring over Kylo's timetable and quietly despairing over what he was seeing. It was at least 40% doodles.

"Why?"

"You have a familiar, it makes sense."

Kylo only had the minimum of two electives so he could squander more of his time and effort on pursuing his increasingly ridiculous extra-curricular activities. The Xylomancy Club was only the tip of the iceberg. He kept coming back to astrology; a subject so flimsy they didn't even teach it at school.

"Why don't you take it then?" Kylo asked snippily, clearly starting to loose his patience.

"What for? I can't stand animals."

The Ravenclaw gave him a long, disparaging look.

"An owl is not a pet," Hux said firmly, "it's a postal service."

"You're very sceptical for a wizard," Kylo said. "Not to mention cynical."

He stopped suddenly and looked down the hill behind them. Hux had tuned out the noises from the quidditch pit and hadn't even heard the high, solitary voice calling out before he saw the girl running towards them. A tiny first- or second year by the looks of it. Her hair was done up in several neat little buns that bounced wildly as she tore up the hill at a ferocious pace, red and gold scarf streaming out behind her.

"Kylo," she panted, coming to a stop and leaning on her knees to catch her breath. "Thank goodness."

"What's going on?"

She only allowed herself a second to recover before she rallied herself and grabbed Kylo by the arm. "No time to explain, Finn is in trouble, come on!"

The girl barely came up to Kylo's shoulder but she didn't let that stop her as she took off with him towards the Quidditch pit, forcing Hux to follow albeit at a more controlled pace.

The sound of raised voiced could be heard clearly as they drew closer.

A group of Slytherins waiting for their turn on the field were surrounding a small Gryffindor underclassman and Poe Dameron who appeared to have arrived on the scene before they did. Hux swept over the group, noting with relief that none of the older prefects were amongst them which would only have complicated the issue.

Dameron was in the same year as them and team captain for the Gryffindors. He was wearing his Quidditch robe over his uniform, which didn't say anything per se, because he rarely took it off. Rumour was he slept in the thing.

Unexpectedly Dameron cheered up at the sight of Kylo.

"Oh, hey!" he greeted him with a smile. "Are you trying out for the team this year?"

"No." Kylo said simply. He shook off the girl's grip and faced the Slytherins. "What's going on?"

"We caught him snooping around outside the locker room!" Mitaka said, pointing at the younger Gryffindor who raised his chin stubbornly but kept his mouth shut.

"Outside?" Kylo repeated. "Were _you_ outside the locker rooms?"

"No, of course not! We were inside."

"I fail to see the problem."

The first match of the year was coming up and it always made people edgy and the old Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry had a tendency to flare up, even though the first match was going to be between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

"Well he shouldn't have been there in the first place," Piett exclaimed, stepping up before the rest of the team. He instantly looked like he regretted it when Kylo, significantly taller, met him toe-to-toe.

"Do you want to keep arguing with me?" he growled.

"Well, no, but I-" Piett threw Hux a pleading look over the Ravenclaw's shoulder. Hux made no attempt to help him.  
  
"Don't look at him! Why are you looking at him? I'm the one talking to you!"

Hux left Kylo to the arguing since he seemed to be enjoying it so much while he covertly turned his attention back to the Gryffindores.

Something that looked a lot like a pair of extendable ears was passed from the boy to the girl, and then to Poe Dameron who snapped his fingers behind his back impatiently until she handed them over. He promptly disappeared them into the folds of his Quidditch robes.

So they had been snooping, and Dameron was sticking his neck out for the younger students in typical self-sacrificing Gryffindore fashion.

Even Dameron's fat little owl was puffing itself up, hooting and flapping its wings from its seat on the younger boy's shoulder as if anyone could possibly find it intimidating.

Hux revoked his earlier statement. Some owls were pets; that things was useless.

"Two points from Gryffindor for most likely snooping."

The way everyone stopped talking to look at him was gratifying. "Everyone happy?"

  
"Well, happy isn't the word I'd use, but I'll take it." Dameron said. "We'll earn it back when we win the Quidditch Cup."

"Fine," Piett snapped. "But don't do it again or you'll be in for a world of hurt," he said, pointing a warning finger at the Gryffindors.

Dameron made a rude gesture at the Slytherins who responded with some rude gestures of their own as they shuffled off to start off their practice.

"You too," Dameron sighed, rounding up the younger students. "Let's go before you get me into any more trouble."

"You were amazing," the boy gushed, large shining eyes fixed on Dameron even as he blindly found the girl's hand and gripped it. She sighed and looked put out at the contact but let herself be pulled along, flashing a brilliant smile at Kylo over her shoulder.

"Thanks, cuz!"

"You weren't so bad yourselves," Dameron said as they walked off.

"Hey, will you give back our-?"

"Ahaha, _no_."  
  
"I didn't know you had a cousin."

Kylo shrugged but he didn't clarify further and Hux didn't push it.

"I have to go, I promised to meet some of the others to work on a project. You want to meet up after dinner?"

Kylo folded his lips together in an obvious attempt to keep from smiling, brown eyes flashing with amusement. "I can't today. We're burning a tree stump."

"Are you joking?"

He shook his head. "It's on the time table."

Hux had almost forgotten he still had it and he took the folded piece of parchment from his pocket.

Furthest down on Wednesday _Xylomancy_ was written in Kylo's bold hand, accompanied by a doodle of a gnarly leafless tree and a spider. Below it was another mark that caught Hux's eye; a small asterisk in the corner of the slot that was usually reserved for night time classes like Astronomy. More clandestine stargazing, no doubt.

Hux rolled his eyes and handed the paper back to his boyfriend.

"Have you considered Alchemy?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Xylomancy - Divination by observing the shape of wood in one's path, or the appearance wood takes while burning.
> 
> I know absolutely nothing about Astrology so I apologise for any nonsense. And Hux is an Aquarius.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hux, Phasma and Kylo have an adventure and some of the teachers show up.

The Halloween feast was always extravagant, even by Hogwarts standards. Every table in the great hall filled to the point of overflowing with food and drink and sweets from one end to the other; the decorations; the scent of the pumpkin lanterns.

Usually Hux really looked forward to it, which was why it was a shame he wasn't there.

He had caught Kylo slipping out of the great hall and caught up with him despite his misgivings, out of some misguided desire to keep him out of trouble or just to know what the hell he was up to at any given time.

He should have known better, really.

"The main door is being guarded but we should be able to get out near the kitchens," Kylo said as he lead him further down into the depths of the castle. The staircases grew narrower and the air damper until the warmth of the main hall was all but forgotten.

Kylo had gotten it into his head that he _really_ needed to be out picking herbs in the middle of the night, on this night in particular, ("it's a full moon and all Hollow's eve!") and frankly Hux didn't try to inquire further because there probably wasn't any logic or reason behind it anyway.

They circled back towards the kitchens and the west wing once they reached the lower levels, and were just nearing their objective when they met Phasma coming up the stairs in the other direction.

Hux and Kylo both froze guiltily.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Kylo shot back immediately. "Shouldn't you be at the feast?"

"Some of the younger students always eat too much and get sick, I took them back here." She tilted her head to the side consideringly. "But you look surprised to see me so I assume you didn't know the Hufflepuff Dormitory was down here. And you can't possibly be visiting the kitchen considering how much food there is upstairs... You're going out, aren't you?"

"No we're not," Kylo said at the same time as Hux sighed, "Yes."

"Just don't tell anyone," he begged her, silently conveying 'save yourself,' but to his surprise her eyes lit up.

"I want to come too. Where are you going?"

"What? Why?" Hux's reaction was instant and incredulous.

"We're going out to the forest to pick mallowsweet."

Phasma immediately looked intrigued. "Many magical plants are at their highest potency during full moon and liminal holidays."

Kylo nodded at her enthusiastically. "Yes, exactly."

"You can't seriously be supporting this?"

"I need an E in potions to qualify for auror training and I wouldn't mind a little bit of adventure."

She and Kylo has obviously struck some kind of chord with each other because Hux could practically feel the excitement coming off them even while every bone in his body was urging him to refuse. But how sure was he that Kylo would actually listen to him?

Thus there were three of them sneaking down the stairs, tip-toeing past the fruit painting that led to the kitchen so as not to be noticed. Kylo tapped a seemingly unremarkable stone in the wall with his wand and the stones peeled away to reveal a narrow set of stairs that led out onto the school grounds.

It was as cold as one could have expected outside, but the full moon offered some illumination as they dashed across the darkened lawn toward the forbidding line of trees at the edge of the grounds, and three of them who stumbled over roots and rocks as they penetrated deeper into the forest.

Once or twice Hux thought he heard voices or saw a flicker of light out of the corner of his eye, but he was eager to dismiss them as his mind playing tricks on him.

The disadvantage of being a wizard was that you _knew_ there were things lurking in the dark. Hux just hoped these in particular were things they had covered in their Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum, years one through four.

Hux didn't mind Herbology, usually, but that was in the controlled environment of a greenhouse, or, even better, an indoor flower pot. Looking for black flowers in the middle of a black forest was a trial to say the lest. They wandered around with their lit wands pointed at the ground for at least an hour before Hux spotted something that fit the criteria.

"Is this what you're looking for?" They were black little star-shaped flowers on plants with rounded leaves, somewhat similar to kidneywort, and almost completely indistinguishable from the soil.

"Yes, that's it exactly," Phasma said, coming over to inspect his finding. "Well done."

Kylo came over as well and in no time at all the two of them were creeping around on the ground picking the plants up by the handful.

"The things I do for you," Hux sighed, but it was almost worth it when Kylo smiled at him.

"I know."

Never let it be said a Ravenclaw wouldn't go above and beyond to sate their curiosity, but frankly he was surprised by Phasma's downright Gryffindor-like charge-ahead attitude to the whole affair.

He pulled out his handkerchief and cast a simple preserving spell on it before he held it out to the other two. "Here. That should keep them fresh until you come up with something else."

He heard a rustling sound from somewhere in their vicinity all three of them instantly froze up, straining their ears to hear anything else.

A hundred different stories about the creatures that allegedly made their home in the Dark Forest suddenly leapt into mind. Werewolves and arachnids and three-headed hounds, and Hux slipped the parcel of flowers into his pocket and held his wand more tightly.

"Just the wind?" Kylo suggested when it had been quiet for a while. His voice was barely above a whisper but it sounded too loud in the forest which had suddenly fallen quiet.  
  
"There is no wind," Phasma said.

The words had barely left her mouth before they heard a low, rattling snort from the darkness beyond the trees. It sounded like it came from large lungs, like a bear or a troll - neither of which Hux would have liked to encounter. Then snapping twigs and thundering footsteps as it rushed towards them.

"Run," Phasma ordered.

They didn't need to be told twice.

" _Stupefy!_ " The arch from Phasma's wand hit something large, but they were already running, all three of them tearing through the forest as quickly as their legs could carry them.

The creature behind them made enough noise to wake the dead, tearing up the ground and snapping limbs under its onslaught, huffing and snarling as it forged ahead as though Phasma's spell had only slowed it down.

Even with Kylo's lit wand it was impossible to make anything out of the forest around them, even less so at the speed they were going. Hux went down and had a fraction of a second to hope he wouldn't break anything important before he hit the ground. A hand grabbed him by the arm and wrenched him up to his feet with surprising strength.

"Come on!" Kylo yanked him onward, pulling him into his wake as they dashed through the forest, hand in hand. Behind him he could hear Phasma tearing through in his footsteps, and beyond her, something else that was closing in quickly.

" _Protego!_ "

Hux flung the spell behind him, high enough to clear even Phasma's towering height. In the brief flash of the spell he saw hairy limbs and snapping teeth and a wildly trashing tongue; rather a lot more teeth than he ever wanted to imagine. A terrible, primal fear gripped him - childhood fears fed on stories about quintapeds - transformed wizards who were trapped in the guise of blood-thirsty five-legged beasts.

He ran, trusting Kylo to lead them merely because it was the only option at hand.

"In here!" Kylo called, as if Hux had any chance to object as he was pulled to the side.It was little more than a crack in a rocky hill, but it offered protection on three sides as they funnelled into it.

Hux's lungs were burning, his wrist throbbed from when it had caught his fall, and he barely had the breath to force the words out of his mouth when he threw up the shield again as soon as Phasma crashed in after him.

Her _stupefy_ barely affected whatever it was and both she and Kylo quickly added their strength to the shield.

"What the hell is that thing?" Hux yelled at Kylo, making no effort to keep the anger out of his voice.

"I can't really see it that well!" Kylo snapped back at him. With his wand extinguished the only source of light was the moon and the occasional flash of the shield when the large, frothing mass beyond smashed into it.

The shield visibly flickered and weakened when Kylo's wand suddenly fizzled out in a burst of sparks.

"Oh, crap."

Hux had never understood _being beside oneself_ with fury quite so well; it was an out of body experience. " _Would you get that fucking thing under control?!_ "

"Yelling doesn't help!"

"Why don't you both shut up?" Phasma suggested.

" _Incendio!_ "

The wall of flames that shot up no more than an arm's distance away invoked a feeling of déjà-vu. Heat fanned towards them and Hux quickly reinforced the _protego_ as an ungodly howl went up from the creature - now an indistinguishable writhing mass half on fire.

Hux hoped it wasn't endangered; a notice from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures would really have been the last straw.

The fact that half of its fur had been signed off only incensed the creature by the sound of it, and it threw itself against their wards again. Hux felt a wave of despair and wondered how soon he ought to be preparing for the inevitability of death. All because he had wanted to date Kylo fucking Organa.

"Let's try stunning it again," Phasma suggested. "Together. It did slow it down a little."

"We'd have to drop the shield", Kylo said. "That doesn't sound like a good idea."

"Hux will keep it up until the last second, then we run."

"I don't know that I agree with this plan," Hux said weakly, knowing the other two were already in agreement. More running didn't appeal to him at all.

"Wait." Phasma suddenly said, holding up a hand for silence.

There was something else moving through the forest somewhere to their right. Hux was a pessimist through and through and assumed that the creature's friends had arrived for dinner.

There was a moment of silence, and a twang like an arrow being loosed just before their assailant bellowed in pain. The monster hissed at its new attacker and a thundering of hooves passed them and ran straight into the predator. The two creatures engaged each other in a brief scuffle while the three students huddled closer together in their little alcove. Eventually, probably only a moment later, they heard one of the two running off into the night.

" _Lumos_ ," Hux whispered and slowly raised his wand. The creature that walked into the light was tall, at least a foot taller than Phasma who was still the reigning champion amongst the fifth years.

"You are trespassing," the centaur said. It held a drawn bow in one hand which it slung over its shoulder as it looked down at them dispassionately.

"We're very sorry," Phasma said courteously, and Hux was glad she'd heard the same stories about centaurs that he had, and how they were just as likely to kill intruders as they were to offer help. "We got lost. We're from the school."

"Ah," it said. "Children. And a Skywalker." It peered with marginally more interest at Kylo who was practically vibrating with excitement at Hux's shoulder.

"We'd be grateful if you could direct us back towards the castle."

It started walking away and with nothing else to do the tree of them stumbled after it, keeping up with its leisurely pace.

Kylo eventually worked up the nerve to ask their impervious guide, "How did you know I was a Skywalker?"

The centaur angled its head to the sky, barely visible through the thick foliage. "Nothing will be gained from fixing one's gaze in the past," the centaur said cryptically. "Look forward."

It didn't speak again until they reached the edge of the woods where it stopped and looked down at them.

"It is unwise to traverse the forest unprepared," it said, as if they hadn't already figured that out. "Especially at night."

"Yes, thank you. We'll keep that in mind," Hux said. Keeping the impatience out of his voice took some effort. "Thank you for seeing us to safety."

He could see the castle from here; the lit windows outlining its reassuringly sturdy shape from the high walls to the soaring towers and turrets.

Phasma and Kylo offered their thanks as well and the Centaur left them without any further ado, disappearing back into the woods.

While it had been marginally helpful in the forest, the full moon wasn't doing them any favours now as they hurried over the grounds towards the castle, and they hadn't gotten very far before a familiar voice rang out.

"Hold it right there!"

Hux cursed. Could this night possibly get any worse?

The three of them turned around and were nearly blinded by the light Professor Kenobi was shining in their faces.

"Well, really," he said, disappointment palatable, "I didn't expect to catch you here." He looked askance at Kylo. "Well, maybe one of you."

"Professor-" Hux started to say but he was interrupted by a held-up finger.

Professor Kenobi scoffed. "You hardly think this is my first Hallow's Eve, do you? There's always some troublemaker who has to run out into the forbidden forest on Halloween. I already apprehended two students trying to sneak out of the castle.

"No, I think a visit to the headmaster's office will do you a world of good. There you go, get a move on."

He led three dejected teenagers up to the castle. Professor Kenobi was his usual cheerful self but it was a silent trip for the rest of them.

Phasma was marching ahead, as unafraid to accept her punishment as she had been eager to earn it in the first place. Kylo was slouching along, hood pulled over his head and playing with his sleeve, absorbed in his own mind and unaware of anyone else outside his little bubble of self-importance.

Hux was livid.

"If I lose my badge over this, we are breaking up," he hissed.

It was unlikely; Bredol Hux Sr. was on the Board of Governors, but Hux was taken aback by the sheer _distress_ he saw on his boyfriend's face.

_Got you._

"I'll take care of it." Kylo promised.

They climbed several staircases on their way up to the headmaster's office. The castle was otherwise silent as it was probably past midnight already. In one corridor he saw a tail of a black robe disappearing down the hall.

"Professor!" Kylo called out, and Professor Snoke turned to face them.

Professor Kenobi made a disgusted sound and rolled his eyes.

Snoke was an unsettling man. He was old, but so scarred and shrivelled that it was impossible to estimate his true age. His sallow skin was pulled taught over his bones in a way that managed to make him look both dry and clammy at the same time.

Hux would have suspected he was part-selkie if not for the fact that Slytherin didn't accept mix-breed wizards.

"What's going on here?" he asked in his usual even tone.

"I found these three coming out of the forest, I'm taking them up to the headmaster."

"Well, seeing as you've already caught them, I don't know what good it will do to wake the Headmaster up."

"And yet, that is where we are going. I'm sure he would like to know why three prefects were out breaking school rules."

"If you insist. I shall accompany you, I think. As Mr Hux's head of house I'm eager to hear his explanation." He looked at Hux. He might have smiled; it was difficult to say with his face.

Thus all five of them squeezed into the passage behind the gargoyle and filed into the headmaster's office.

Headmaster Jinn was present and counted for even though Hux wasn't sure of his wakefulness. He yawned widely and smiled them as if he had been expecting houseguests. "Come in, come in," he urged them. "I've a pot of tea brewing if anyone would like some."

"I'm afraid I found these three coming out of the forest, headmaster" Professor Kenobi explained while he waved his wand at the tea set. He produced two cups of tea and set them levitating over to Professor Snoke and himself.

"Ah," the Headmaster said knowingly. He directed the students to a cluster of mismatched chairs facing his desk and took a precarious seat on the edge of it, folding his arms into the sleeves of his robes. His smile never wavered. "Now, children. Why don't you explain yourselves."

He was an extremely tall man with an angular, neatly trimmed beard and a an endlessly patient smile even though he was frequently referred to as 'impetuous' and a 'maverick' by the Daily Prophet. He was wearing his customary brown robe, made of some unidentifiable fluffy material that looked even more like terrycloth than usual at this time of night.

Kylo immediately spoke up before Hux or Phasma had the chance.

"We didn't mean to," he started, unaffected by the bold-faced lie. "I wanted to see the shrieking shack - Hux and Phasma only came with me because they couldn't talk me out of it and they wouldn't let me go alone."

Professor Snoke tutted gently. "Typical Ravenclaw curiosity, no doubt encouraged by Professor Ti."

"Why on earth did you end up in the forest then?" Professor Kenobi asked.

"We heard someone on the road and tried to hide. Then we got lost."

"Well, there we have it," Snoke said. His voice never rose but it had an air finality to it.

The headmaster yawned again. "Seeing at it's your first offence -" his eyes cut past Hux "-or second for some, we'll chalk it up to youthful indiscretion. I've been thinking the candelabras could do with some polishing, and the trophy room has been looking dull. A good week's worth of polishing should take care of that. And I'm deducting ten points from each of your houses."

"Really, headmaster," Professor Kenobi protested, but his heart seemed to be more invested in his cup of tea which he sipped delicately. "That hardly seems appropriate under the circumstances."

"No? They know they've done wrong, now it's up to them to do better in the future." He looked up and down at their torn and muddied robes. "Judging by your appearance I'm guessing you all have a better idea of why the forest is off limits now, and know to prevent younger students from making the same mistake you have."

And so they found themselves ushered back down the spiral staircase and out in the hall where Professor Snoke looked smug and Kenobi mildly put-off.

Hux couldn't believe their luck. Phasma shrugged at him, equally surprised but content, and Kylo looked aside guiltily from Hux's glare.

Prefossor Kenobi still felt the need to give them one last dose of guilt before he released them. "You do understand that going into the forest is a serious offence. Not just because it is forbidden, but because it's so very dangerous. The rules are there for your own protection."

"Yes, Professor," they all chorused.

"Are we done?" Professor Snoke asked. "We ought to get them to bed before the sun comes up."

"Very well," Professor Kenobi sighed, "I suppose we should." He had a habit of folding his hands in his sleeves like the headmaster. "I'll take Mr Organa up to the tower, just to make sure he doesn't get lost on the way."

Kylo looked back at them once or twice when they were parted. Hux had already decided to make up with him tomorrow, but he didn't feel bad about letting him wonder until then, either.

They circled past the staircase to the kitchen where they left off Phasma, and descended further into the dungeons where the Slytherin common room was.

Just as Hux was about to climb through the entrance Snoke's bony hands pressed down on his shoulders. There was an old man's wiry strength in his grip. "I'm glad you and Kylo have taken an interest in each other," he said, his voice airy and distant as always, but there was a different kind of weight behind it. "He'll be more useful to you than you can imagine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Quintaped](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Quintaped) \- "a dangerous magical beast with five legs, each ending in a clubfoot, and is covered with thick, red-brown hair."
> 
> Mallowsweet -" a herb that Centaurs burn to observe the fumes and flames to refine the results of their stargazing."  
> It's actually never described in the Potter books but there are unnamed black flowers growing in the Forbidden Forest.
> 
>  
> 
> I didn't have the time to proof-read this chapter as much as I would have liked, so please let me know if you see any mistakes. :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A regular Wednesday from Kylo's PoV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the comments and support, guys. It means the world. <3
> 
> Please feel free to make suggestions if there's anything you feel strongly about, either for or against.  
> For one I'm torn between having Chewy as the family dog or Han's ZZ-Top trucker pal.

Like most mornings, Kylo woke up on Wednesday to the sound of a truly obnoxious alarm clock. As son as it activated, it parroted "time to get up, time to get up," from different corners of the room as it zipped about, evading anyone who made an attempt to hit the snooze button.

"Shut that bloody thing off!" someone shouted. 

The resulting daily trample five boys running back and forth across the room while the clock grew louder and louder to make itself heard was probably enough to wake people up several rooms over.

Kylo rolled over as much as he could and pressed his face against his pillow. Ani was curled up in the crook between his arm and his chest, sleeping deeply, and he moved around her out of habit.

Finally the noise died. "Thank fuck!" One of the boys exclaimed, slightly out of breath. "We really ought to reconsider this strategy."

"But it works so well!"

"Are you up, Organa?"

Kylo groaned wordlessly into the bedding. There was a general scuffle as the others rushed off to the bathroom, leaving the bedroom as quiet as it had been a few minutes ago.

He reached down to stroke Ani who chirruped at the first touch and then rolled onto her back, stretching out. He threaded his fingers through the soft fur of her belly and under her arms while she gave him a few half-hearted purrs before she went back to sleep.

He almost did as well while he gradually worked up the will to sit up and brave the cold air.

With the hangings drawn and a cat to warm it up, the bed was always blissfully warm, but the same couldn't be said for the rest of the dormitory. The castle was always draughty and freezing in the winter, and the windows rattled and whistled in the wind thigh high up in the tower, ensuring that first step out of bed was always as painful as possible. 

He slowly rolled out from under the covers and swung his legs down on the floor, sinking his toes into the thick rug while he blindly searched for his slippers, feeling beyond envious of his cat who was already asleep and making thin, snoring noises in her nose.

Most of the others were finished by the time he slouched into the bathroom and ducked under the spray. He was always the last to shower, by choice. He didn't really get the other boys any more than they got him, and he found them particularly grating in the mornings.

He heard the door shut behind the last of them while he stood in front of the mirror, brushing his teeth with one hand with his wand held in the other, drying his hair and directing his hair brush. It had a tendency to tug when he wasn't paying attention.

"Couldn't you try smiling every once in a while?" his reflection complained, sounding depressingly like his father.

He had learned to ignore it; it rarely had anything constructive to come with, much like the man himself.

The other boys had already left when he returned to the dorm room and he could get dressed in peace without anyone questioning him about his choice of fashion. 

Ani was still sleeping on the bed. Sometimes he bothered her too much by getting up and she'd strut off to find somewhere else to nap. He resisted the urge to poke her.

Down in the great hall breakfast was in progress. He spotted Phasma at the Hufflepuff table as he crossed the hall and she smiled at him. He still didn't know her very well, but he would go as far as to say they enjoyed each other's company. It was amazing how far a little near-death experience could go when it came to relationships. 

Hux kept insisting he wasn't angry about it anymore, but he kind of was, probably despite his own best efforts. 

Hux was also convinced it was a quintaped that had chased them. Since he was the only one who had gotten a good look at it, it was difficult to disprove him even though Phasma, who actually took Care of Magical Creatures, insisted that they only existed on a single island off the north coast of Scotland. 

The Slytherins were used to him by now, and the whole line of them shifted to make room for him next to Hux. Some of them even greeted him in the halls when he was alone nowadays, which had taken some getting used to.

Hux was in conversation with someone else down the table, but he turned, just for a second, and twined his fingers through Kylo's under the table as soon as he sat down. It was unfair how such a simple gesture could affect him so much, and even more unfair that they were surrounded by people, because all Kylo wanted to do was to lean into him.

Hux was slathering an inch-thick layer of lemon curd onto his scones and Kylo reached for the clotted cream at the other side of the table and left it next to his plate before he could ask for it. 

Hux had a huge, grey-spotted eagle owl, easily one of the largest birds that flew in with the morning mail, and it upset several dishes as it landed before them on the table. Wilhuff hadn't yet decided if he approved of Kylo, but he graciously bent down to eat some bacon from his hand, balancing on one foot despite his size while Hux freed the letter from his leg.

"Your dad?"

"Yes, just holiday plans."

Christmas was coming up fast which meant a two-week break. At home, with his parents. And his uncle. And occasionally his father's bizarre friends. It was a good thing they were bribing him with gifts or Kylo might have preferred to stay at Hogwarts.

Wilhuff gave him a little nip on the finger which might have been friendly or the opposite, and proceeded to bump himself against Hux's arm until his owner relented and gave the bird a few hasty strokes. "Yes, yes, well done. Off you go." 

"You should come to visit after Christmas," Kylo said. 

Hux was in the process of eating his scones and didn't respond immediately. "In the summer. Christmas holiday is only two weeks."

"Are you afraid of my mother? I don't think she knows your father well enough to hate him." 

"I'm not afraid of your mother. I merely think there should be some planning beforehand. I'm assuming you haven't told your parents about me since you _never_ write to them."

True enough. Kylo cocked his head to the side. "Have you told your father?"

"That's entirely beside the point."

\-----

Professor Ti's divination classroom was probably the only room in the entire castle that was not only warm in the middle of winter, but downright stifling. There was a sparkling yellow fire burning in the fireplace and the low ceiling efficiently trapped all the heat in the room between the hanging drapes and the many, many cushions and tuffets that served as seating.

The professor was wearing a gauzy veil draped over her tall, two-horned hat, possibly because the room smelled like someone had recently been burning sage in it. 

She always made sure to save their tasseomancy lessons for winter in case they needed some warming up between their other classes. They had graduated from black tea leaves to rooibos this year.

"Make careful note of how the difference in tea leaves effects the practice." Professor Ti said. "I'll expect an essay on the subject next week."

Kylo quickly got up to get a pot before Poe could do so. He wasn't sure what the hell Poe Dameron was doing in divination, but he seemed to enjoy it and the two of them usually teamed up when there was need for it.

"Let me hear it then," Poe said when they had swirled and turned over their cups. "tell me I'll find my one true love and lead a life of excitement and adventure."

Kyo peered down into Poe's cup. Most of the mess clung to the edges except for the wobbly, misshapen lump a the bottom. The smaller tea leaves spread out more evenly than black tea, and the images were clearer. "No, you're undiscriminating in love, but you'll have loyal friends. And there's children."

"I'll have children?"

"They're not really connected to anything, but they're in your present so I'm assuming they aren't yours." 

Poe shrugged noncommittally. 

"You'll make a strong commitment and there's some fortune in here, so I'm guessing it's a business commitment rather than a romantic one." He turned the cup to get a better angle. "Or it could be a beach holiday."

"Wow. I better not go on any beach holidays then, I guess. Improve my odds." Poe said, looking unduly impressed for a tea reading. Kylo wasn't sure whether Poe was mocking him or actually planning on avoiding the seashore for however long it took for his fortune to come true.

"You also have a tendency to live in the present and act impulsively, which makes this exercise completely useless." Kylo didn't even need to look at the cup for that part.

"Let me do yours!" Poe picked up Kylo's cup with great intent and spent several minutes looking between it and the open course book. "You'll need to repair something... a visitor? 'Probably not romantic', it says, but this here says you'll meet a new love. A new love who isn't the visitor in need of repair."

"What? Give me that!"

"Keep your pants on," Poe said and pulled away from his reach. "And this flower means there will be 'praise and compliments coming your way' and you'll persevere through hard work."

Kylo snatched the cup out of his hand and rotated it several times to get his bearings. "That's a _spider_ ; a reward or victory, not a 'new love'. You suck at this."

"Shh!" Poe hushed him, looking around to make sure Professor Ti wasn't nearby. He put his elbow up on the table and leaned his chin in his hand. "I know," he said wistfully, "but it's such fun."

"If you didn't have me here to correct you, you would have flunked by now."

"And I appreciate it, you're so talented." He grinned. "See? I _was_ right about the compliments."

\-----

It was an alright day as far as Wednesdays went - usually Kylo enjoyed them because Divination and Defence Against the Dark Arts were his favourite classes. 

Professor Windu was their teacher in the latter and they often had practical lessons, such as now when they had been practicing shield spells and counter-curses for the last few weeks.

Kylo was enjoying it until his shield happened to collapse just when his partner was casting a jinx at him. It was just a leg-locker curse and he managed to counter it in time, but Professor Windu still halted the class.

"Excellent reaction time, Mr Organa, but let's try not to let that happen again."

"Yes sir." He felt his ears burning, probably flushing down to his neck.

He had almost put the indecent out of his mind when Windu called him aside as the class ended. "I'd like to see you in my office after dinner, Mr Organa."

Kylo frowned. "Am I in trouble?"

"No, I just think we ought to have a talk."

Dinner couldn't pass quickly enough. He could think of at least five things he might be in trouble for, some more serious than others, but none that Professor Windu was likely to know about.

He still couldn't relax until he was sitting across from the teacher in his study. 

Like the rest of the man, Mace Windu's office was predominantly dressed in purple. He had managed to soften the stone walls with silk wallpaper in eggplant with gold trim and a puce whole carpet. Duelling trophies could be found on several shelves and tables along with odd skulls and bones from strange creatures. 

Professor Windu wasn't one for chitchat and leaned over the table as soon as Kylo was seated.

"May I see your wand?"

Kylo reluctantly handed it over. He didn't suppose any wizard felt completely comfortable handing over their wand to someone else.

The professor held it aloft in his hands, all 13 inches of beautifully polished warped wood as he inspected it for damage or wear from the rounded tip to the knot at the end. "Well, it looks to be alright. Dragon heart string?"

Kylo nodded.

"Dragon cores are known to act out from time to time, but to this extent-"

"It's not!" Kylo took breath and tried again more softy at Windu's expression at his raised voice. "It's not the wand. Professor Snoke says it's me."

"He does, huh?" he handed the wand back to Kylo who gratefully took it and tucked it back into his sleeve, a reassuring pressure against the inside of his arm. "Considering Snoke isn't actually your teacher on _any_ subject, I'd prefer to make up my own opinion. This isn't a new problem but it seems to be getting worse rather than better."

He held up a hand to stave off the torrent of outraged protests from Kylo. "I've been thinking about it before, but this made up my mind. The last thing we want is you causing yourself permanent harm."

"I know how to cast a protection spell!"

"I'm not saying you don't, but for now we'll have some private session so I can get a better idea of the situation."

"This isn't fair. I have _perfect_ marks-"

"I am aware, seeing as I'm the one who gave them to you." Professor Windu had a remarkable talent for intimidating people into silence without doing very much.

Kylo's bit his lip, his fingers dug into the flesh of his palms until he felt the nails break through the skin. There was a clear tinkling sound as a glass decanter on a shelf broke into little pieces.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, staring at Professor Windu who looked just as stunned. The teacher drew out his own wand and repaired the damage with a flick.

"That's alright, don't worry about it," he said, sounding both vexed and patient at the same time, "but it kind of proves my point, doesn't it?"

\-----

Kylo had had enough talkings-to and letters home over the years to learn not to damage school property. He was still shaking with anger when he left Professor Windu's office. It was even worse when he couldn't lash out and it just kept _building up_ and there was nowhere to put it.

He sat down on the first steps of the stairs at the end of the hall and did what his father called 'sulking'.

He didn't realize how long he had been there until he saw Hux coming up the stairs, looking for him. 

"What's taking you so long? What are you doing?"

"Nothing." He wiped his sleeve across his eyes and stood up, dodging around Hux who still caught him by the arm. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Tell me." 

He was concerned, and annoyed because he didn't like being concerned, and the burden of Hux's emotions of top of his own was too much to deal with; his kindness too difficult to accept even when Hux didn't give him much choice in that regard. He wielded kindness like a mallet. 

His grip slipped down from Kylo's arm to his hand and found the half-dried smears of blood. "What the fuck is this? _Tell me_."

Kylo rotated his jaw, dragging his teeth over his tongue in annoyance, knowing Hux wouldn't leave him alone until he said it. "Windu thinks I'm too unstable and I need private tutoring."

"And this is how you decided to prove him wrong. Bleeding and crying on the stairs." There was honest bafflement in his voice.

Kylo snatched his arm back and started down the stairs. "I told you I don't want to talk about it!"

Hux cursed and caught him by the elbow, more gently this time. "You're so _dramatic!_ Fine, we don't have to talk about it. We can study. I haven't seen you all day and most of the others are at Quidditch practice." 

The Xylomancy club was on its winter hiatus. The snow had come early and made it difficult to spot branches and formations in the forest, which was just as well because Kylo wasn't too eager to go back in there again any time soon.

On top of that they had the OWLs to worry about. The exams weren't until spring, but with four years of material to revise there wasn't enough time in the world. Less hobby activities meant more time to study and to spend with Hux. Often simultaneously. 

In their defence they had studied for at least an hour before they took a break.

The Slytherin dungeon was probably the coldest, but Kylo liked it there. A little dark and muggy, but certainly preferable to the Ravenclaw common room which looked like a ladies' parlour from the 19th century. 

They were lying on the bed kissing, legs tangled and Kylo's fingers on the warm skin at the small of Hux's back, just under his shirt. His skin was startlingly soft, still a little new and exciting to be touching like this, while Hux made low, pleased sounds into his mouth.

The kissing wasn't new, but lately it had been getting to the point where it got... uncomfortable. Kylo's lips had gone a little numb and there was a persistent tingling over his skin, frustration building up in his body like a charge he couldn't release.

Hux's tongue flicked over a pulse point on his throat, the hand that had been resting on Kylo's hip felt like it was burning through his clothes, and the glancing press of his thumb in the hollow of his hip sent a sudden spark of pleasure through him.

" _Ah!_ Wait." Kylo scooted backwards and made some room between them, hand firmly pressed over his mouth afraid of making any more sounds or even breathing. His entire face was burning, his body overheated and he was mortifyingly sure that he had just barely avoided something catastrophic. 

The green of Hux's eyes was almost completely engulfed by his pupils. Kylo immediately wanted to close the distance between them again. Hux reached out to pry the hand of Kylo's mouth and he jerked away, afraid that even that much contact would be too much.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded dully. "I just need a minute." The bed was cooler on this side and he pressed his face against the sheets wile he waited for his breaths to slow down. Hux was looking at him, eyes soft with something that looked an awful lot like affection and he could feel his body relaxing in response.

"Hey," Hux said after a while, "do you ever- after we've, uh... touch yourself?"

Kylo's brain stalled. He did, sometimes, and it was somewhere between horrifying and the best thing in the world. He nodded, not quite sure where the conversation was going or whether he was going to like it.

Over Hux's shoulder he caught the time on the clock and he sat up abruptly.

"I've got to go."

"Are you joking? Curfew isn't until nine." Hux pinched the end of his sleeve and Kylo hovered half-off the bed while Hux stared him down. "Are you seriously running away right now?"

He shook his head, shifting restlessly from one foot to the other. "It's not because of that," he stuttered, "but I have to go."

"I'm talking to you."

"Talk about it some other time." He had given Hux plenty of time to let go so he snapped his sleeve out of his grip and fastened his robes with shaky fingers, grateful of how much the garment covered up.

Hux didn't say anything, but it didn't take a psychic to read unhappy. 

"I'll see you tomorrow," Kylo said a bit more gently before he left.

Outside of the Slytherin common rooms he spent a few precious seconds with his forehead pressed against the cold dungeon wall, willing himself back into stillness. 

He kept on going until he got to Professor Snoke's door which opened under his hand as soon as he knocked.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said. Snoke who was seated by the fire set aside the book he was holding.

"No matter," he said. "You're here now. You can leave your wand on the table, you won't need it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've spent waaay too much time looking up obscure and useless stuff for this AU, like possible an entire evening putting together their wands.
> 
> Kylo's is 13 inches, flexible [dragon heartstring](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_heartstring) and [silver lime](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Silver_lime) that looks something like [Bill Weasley's wand](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/William_Weasley's_wand) (purely coincidental).
> 
> Hux's is 11inches, rigid [unicorn tail hair](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Unicorn_hair) and [pine](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Pine) and looks similar to [Draco's wand](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Draco_Malfoy's_wand) with a lighter colour.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hux goes home and someone is in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, sorry about the long break! I ran into a rough patch IRL, so thank you so much for the patience for anyone who was waiting for an update. Even while I wasn't updating, I was writing, so I won't be abandoning this story even if I'm hiding under a rock somewhere for a while. :)

They were alone in their cabin. Mitaka had run off to look for his girlfriend and Datoo had made himself scarce not long after, accurately having pegged himself as the awkward third wheel. 

Hux didn't think they were prone to public displays of affection, so he didn't know why his classmates were so squeamish about being left alone with him and Kylo, but the peace wasn't unwelcome. 

Hux was watching the snowy scenery blur past the window as the Hogwarts Express steadily made its way back to London, his chin propped up on his hand and his elbow on the windowsill, the chugga-chugga and the gentle rocking of the train's movement almost hypnotic in its repetitiveness. 

Kylo was sprawled out on the other seat, paying no attention to him for once. 

Kylo was clingy. Hux could have tried to find a more flattering word for it, but why bother? He had asked three times for Hux to stay with them during the holidays. Hux had kept saying no, and after that Kylo had maintained a stony, wounded silence on the matter, as if sulking was any more likely to sway Hux into doing what he wanted. He was so spoiled. Perhaps not for attention, but in every other way that counted, and if Hux was going to put up with him in the long term, that was the first thing they needed to work on. 

So Hux was going home for the full extent of the holidays, where he would spend his time alternating between being scolded by his grandmother and being bored out of is mind. Hux didn't _dislike_ his father, but there was nothing that he could think of that would require him to spend two weeks with the man, either; no family matter of filial responsibility that could possibly demand more than a few days of their time at most.

He could have spent some time with his boyfriend, probably even as much as a week - his father was about as sentimental about so-called family holidays as he was - could have ingrained himself with Kylo's parents and the part of his life that Hux didn't have access to at Hogwarts. A part of him wanted to, but an even bigger part wanted to say 'no' and 'you have to wait for it' just because he could. The part that wanted to see how Kylo reacted to separation.

In all honesty he could use some time apart to figure things out, himself. He couldn't say their relationship was progressing too quickly considering they had been dating since the start of the term, but all the same he felt like some things were developing out of his control. 

The Plan had been so deceptively simple in theory: date Organa; never behave in a manner that would give Organa reason to stop dating him; ad infinitum; profit. But what Hux was starting to discover was that it didn't much matter how he behaved. 

He hadn't found a limit to what Kylo would let him get away with, because Kylo was in love with him. 

It seemed like a naturally forgone conclusion now, and there was no reason for it to come as such a surprise. It should have felt like a victory -relief - but it didn't. He told himself it was a good thing - it made things easier, certainly - but he wondered what else that implied. Would Kylo have responded the same way to anyone who showed him the barest hint of romantic interest? If all it took was attention and affection, even if it was counterfeit. 

The thought irked him.

He looked at his boyfriend, lying on his front with his feet up and his attention divided between the comic book he was reading and Ani who was confined to the cat carrier because she had a habit of wandering. He was poking his fingers in through the bars while she pretended to ignore him until a cream-tipped paw would suddenly extend out from the bars and swat at him. Hux marvelled at the phenomenon that was cat owners and their baffling willingness to be scratched and abused on a daily basis.

Kylo looked up at the scrutiny and tucked a strand of hair behind an oversized ear. “What?”

Hux didn't answer him straight away. _He's is in love with me._ It was a strange feeling. He didn't think anyone had ever been in love with him before, unless he counted Datoo's obsessive crush on him in third year, which he didn't. So it was the first time. The first time someone was in love with him. What was he supposed to do with that?

He watched Kylo's nose and the tips of his ears turn pink until they almost matched the red of his mouth.

“Stop looking at me.” He reached up to dislodge the lock of hair so it fell over his ear again.

“Come here.”

Kylo sat up so he was facing Hux, their knees brushing together across the narrow space between the benches. His jaw worked under his cheek, teeth click-and-crunching as he swallowed the sweet in his mouth in anticipation. 

He leaned forward, eager and easy, and Hux reached out with both hands to tuck his hair behind his ears and caught Kylo's hands in his before he could undo it.

“Stop hiding your face.” 

“ _You_ stop it,” Kylo said sullenly, “they're my ears.”

 _Are they?_ Was the first ludicrous thought that came to him. _You love me and they're mine, too._

They were pressed together, brow against brow, so closely that Hux could feel the brush of lashes against his skin. “I don't want you to hide from me. I like the way you look.”

Kylo's dark eyes stared into his doggedly, pouting. “I look weird.”

“Pretty-weird,” Hux said and smiled at the huff of laughter it startled out of his boyfriend.

He thumbed the warm shell of Kylo's ear while they kissed. He did like them, just as he liked his nose and his almond-shaped eyes and the broad hands that were resting warm on his knees. 

And his mouth which was made for kissing, and maybe other things too that Hux thought about late at night with the curtains drawn and a silencing charm cast on the bed while the other boys in the dorm were sleeping. 

Hux still pulled away after just a few seconds with a disgusted face. 

Kylo didn't eat sweets often, but when he did he insisted on having black pepper imps and liquorice snaps and all other things salty and peppery; neither being flavours that should occur in conjuncture with sugar, and the bitter taste still clung to the inside of his mouth.

“I wish you would eat sweets like a normal person.”

“They're not that bad.”

“I'm only getting the second-hand experience and I'm appalled.”

“Here.” Kylo reached back for the bag on the bench behind him and plucked a dusted black lolly from it which he held it up to Hux. 

“No. Why would I want something that hurts in my mouth?”

“I'll show you.”

He placed the candy on Hux's tongue. The coating was more salt than sugar and it burned on his tongue as it melted. It was more like having an acid pop in your mouth than something sweet - a bite indistinguishable from hot or cold that had his entire mouth tingling in response.

Kylo had long nails, due to the thick layers of polish and his general aversion to grooming anything that wasn't his cat or his hair. He dragged them lightly over the insides of Hux's wrists and up his palms, startling him with the tickling sensation in conjuncture with the tingling in his mouth, resulting in shivers and a jolt that ran all the way down to his groin.

Hux gasped out loud, an embarrassingly loud sound, and opened his eyes to Kylo who was smiling at him, unrepentant. 

“You bastard.” Hux crushed the sweet between his teeth and immediately regretted it when the powdery pepper centre was released. Then Kylo's mouth was on his, drawing the taste out of his mouth and sucking on Hux's tongue when he kissed him back.

They drew apart some time later, flushed and breathing heavily both due to arousal and lack of oxygen. Kylo's thumb brushed over the inside of Hux's wrist where the pulse was jumping.

“Do you think, after we get back, if we should...?” He started haltingly, blushing furiously as the words tumbled out of his kiss-swollen mouth.

“ _Yes_.” Hux said emphatically.

Kylo gave him one of his rare smiles, showing off a row of endearingly crooked teeth. Hux leaned in and kissed him again but Kylo pulled back shortly.

“Two weeks,” he said.

“You _are_ a bastard.”

\-----

It was snowing when they got off the train at King's Cross Station. Huge clusters of snowflakes that drifted in every direction between the wind and the draft from the still-steaming train.

They stood on the platform with their trunks loaded onto their trolleys as other students and parents milled around them, Kylo's hands on Hux's waist as they kissed goodbye. Hux cupped Kylo's still-warm cheek with one hand and tucked the other one into the pocket of Kylo's expensive designer wool coat, pulling them closer together.

It was all the kisses he was going to get for two whole weeks so he took his time, even with his father standing further down the platform waiting for him and Wilhuff hooting mournfully in his cage as their luggage slowly became covered in snow.

"Alright, that's enough!" 

Hux was suddenly tugged away from Kylo by a firm hand pulling on the back of his jacket. He turned around, astonished to see who the fuck would have the audacity to yank him, when Kylo burst out with: "Dad! Would you give me a minute?"

Han Solo-Organa, Muggle, pulled down the sleeve of his jacket to reveal a hideous contraption Hux identified as a Muggle wristwatch. If there was one thing he had learned from Muggle studies, it was that Muggles suffered from notoriously bad taste.

"I did give you a minute. You're coming up on the two minute mark and that's enough. I don't even know this kid," he said, jabbing a thumb in Hux's direction in an inconceivably rude manner that had Hux's jaw clenching.

" _I wish you didn't know me!_ "

Mr Solo-Organa pointed his accusing index finger at his son instead, and Hux tried to fade into the background and away from the scene they were causing."You watch your tone, kid. Now come on, get your stuff. Rey and her pal are already packed and uncle Chewie is waiting in the car."

Uncle Chewie? _Car?_

"You're ruining my life," Kylo told his father with devastating frankness. He darted forward and planted one last kiss on Hux's mouth. "Owl me," he commanded, and then they were off, his father shooting Hux one last foreboding glare over his shoulder. 

Hux looked after the pair as they headed towards the exit to the Muggle part of the train station, still bickering if the waving arms and exaggerated gestures were anything to go by. People quickly got out of their way.

A hand rested heavily on Hux's shoulder and he turned to his father.

Brendol Hux Sr was a portly man. The two of them were almost of a height now, but the father more than twice as wide, both in the midriff and across the shoulders. He had the same ginger hair as his son although his was greying at the temples, and a matching beard that framed his jaw.

“It looks like you've had a busy year,” his father said. There was an edge to his voice that told Hux he had been the recipient of at least a few angry letters from school since they last saw each other at the end of August.

“That was Ben Organa,” he said and had the rare pleasure to see his father's eyebrows rise. “I'll explain.”

\-----

The Hux family home was actually the Kealy family home. Hux's father had married profitably - not in terms of finances, but in standing. His wife may have died young and the property reverted back to her mother, but he never seemed to regret the match, even if his relationship with his mother-in-law remained strained at best.

Hux had been too young to form a reliable opinion of whether his parents had loved each other or not, but he had never been given any reason to assume they hadn't.

Ceallaigh Cairn was a tall stone house situated on a cliff on the Irish coast. Outwardly it looked like a typical Irish country home, albeit one that had been expanded on vertically rather than horizontally. It stood three and a half floors tall with an attic under a sharply steeped roof, rigid and impervious to the strong wind from the sea. 

Hux's grandmother often told him one could see the English coast on a fine day, but Hux had yet to prove or disprove this theory because the weather was always fucking terrible. If it wasn't raining or snowing or overcast, the mist over the sea always dimmed the view. 

They appeared on the grassy knoll not far from the house, the trip taking no more than a couple of seconds by side-along apparition. The weather was no surprise at all. What little snow had managed to cling to the ground was being washed away by the seasonal drizzle, and the sky was a uniform slate-grey that made it almost indistinguishable from the sea below.

Hux huddled miserably in his coat before his father cast a water-repelling charm over him and proceeded to levitate his trunk up the hill before them. Hux released Wilhuff from his cage and the owl immediately took off, spiralling up into the veiled sky where he quickly disappeared from sight.

The flagstone path that curved around the house to the kitchen entrance was lined with flowering shrubs and fanged geraniums that snapped at your ankles in the summer, all of them dormant during the winter, leaving nothing but twigs and brambles in the flowerbeds. The path took them past the conservatory that had been filled with exotic flowers and plants in his childhood, but now primarily served as an aviary for his grandmother's collection of birds. They let themselves in through the kitchen door and Hux's freezing muscles slowly started to unknot themselves in the warmth.

It wasn't a warm home. It always had a certain air of vacancy about it, even more so now when he spent nine months of the year away at school while his father kept a flat in London. The only permanent living habitants were his grandmother, who had had one foot in the grave since before he was born, and their house elf, Tilly. 

The little elf squealed with excitement as soon as they crossed the threshold. She vanished Hux's trunk with a snap of her finger and in no time at all had a full serving of tea and sandwiches presented on the table before them.

“I've received two letters from school about your conduct this term, and they weren't flattering.”

Tilly knew Hux's tastes well and had left the sugar bowl next to him, and he spooned a generous amount into his cup as he spoke.

“It was necessary to secure Organa. I won't be doing that anymore." He sincerely hoped he wasn't lying. He had a feeling it would be easier to keep Kylo in line from now on. The thought brought a smile to his face which he concealed by taking a sip of his cup. 

Unlike his grandmother, his father had accepted Hux's disinterest in the opposite gender gracefully, but that didn't mean he was indifferent to whom his son was seeing.

"And you think he's worth it? Someone with a Muggle for a father and a mother who's an outspoken Muggle-supporter. Cultivating his friendship is one thing, but what you're doing rather goes beyond that, doesn't it." His father never displayed anger, if he even felt it, but his furrowed brow and the curl of his lip was cutting awfully close to frustration. "I've never known you to be so reckless. I hope you have considered that you may be throwing away your future on nothing more than a youthful infatuation."

Hux's teeth ground against each other as he clenched his jaw, urging himself not to rise to the bait. "Friendship would be more risky."

"What makes you say that?"

"I have more influence over him this way." _He loves me_. The thought came unbidden but it was pleasant. Warming. The tea washed away the last bitter taste of liquorice from his mouth.

His father sighed. He laced his fingers together and rested his hands on the table in a manner that didn't make Hux feel any less like he was being interrogated.

"I'm not sure what you want from me, son. My approval? I've never heard anything productive about the Organa boy. He's an underachieving son of a Muggle, but it's your life and if you want to take risks with it, that's your business.”

That was Brendol Hux - always ready to reserve judgement until things went south, at which point he would helpfully step in with his 'I told you so's and general air of disappointment. But say what you would of Bendol Hux's school of passive-aggressive parenting, it had managed to instil Hux with a sense of confidence in his own choices and abilities.

Hux also knew this wasn't something he would ask for permission for, or even approval. Kylo Organa fit into the picture of the future that he had painted himself, regardless of what his father thought of it. 

He had never had reason to go against his father. He was, as most sons were, a product of his father's ambition, and thus far their desires had always aligned. For the first time he saw the possibility of divergence, and it was less upsetting than he would have expected. 

If he had Kylo, he didn't need his father. 

“It will work,” he said with perfect confidence. ”I'll make sure it does.”

His father gave him one of his flat smiles. “That's what I like to hear.”

\-----

When they were done Hux went to look in on his grandmother. He found her asleep in her sitting room - stretched out in a chair with her feet up on a pouf, snoring. Palpably relieved, he closed the door behind him and left her and her scathing remarks for another time.

Somewhere in the house an Augurey was heralding in the rain with its song, and as he climbed the stairs the sound of the raindrops against the shingle roof grew louder and more frequent. He passed several portraits of tawny-haired witches and wizards. Some of the frames stood empty - their occupants liked to gather in the large landscape painting in the hall downstairs - others were sleeping, but some waved and nodded as he passed them. 

Hux's room was on the landing where the stairs turned. It wasn't large but it was comfortable and had all the necessities a person could need. It had changed very little since he was a child; fewer toys on the shelves and less clutter on the floor, but most of the furniture were heirloom pieces and pinned down with sticking-charms and hexes by previous generations of busy bodies. They ranged in shades from a pale, neutral green to oatmeal grey, and between that and the linen wallpaper, there was very little of colour to break up the monotony. 

The ceiling sloped on one side and there was a narrow window next to the desk that offered a view of the soggy hills outside, somewhat warped through the imperfections in the thick glass panes. A wrought-iron bed was lodged in the corner between the desk and the wardrobe and his trunk was set up next to the armoire where it usually stood when he was visiting. Wilhuff had found his way inside and was sitting on his perch by the window, grooming his damp feathers.

Hux sat down at his desk and produced parchment, ink, and a quill from a drawer and contemplated writing. Got home safely, bored already. How is it for you? 

Then he remembered Kylo's father mentioning a car, and that Kylo probably hadn't even reached home yet. _A car_. Of all the things, really. Hux hoped he still had a boyfriend by the end of the day and that he hadn't expired in a fiery ball of death on some Muggle road. 

Hux hadn't realized how much effort he spent on keeping tabs on Kylo during the day: where he was and what he was doing; whether he was getting into trouble. It felt oddly anti-climactic not to have any idea now. 

He was deliberating over what to write when a voice that sounded a lot like Mitaka when he had been wooing his Hufflepuff sweetheart last year suggested that sending a letter the same day was desperate and accused him of having 'no chill'. Hux didn't really care, but he could only imagine how Kylo would take it.

He put away the paper and ink for another day and groped in the drawer for a handful of seeds instead and whistled the owl over. Wilhuff flew the short distance across the room and started to peck the seeds off the desk.

The winter when Hux turned five, his mother had died. Several months before that she had been confined to her hospital bed in St. Mungo's. Wilhuff had been the last gift his mother had given him, and the owl had flown back and forth between London and the Cairn nearly daily for two months, baring gifts and messages. It sounded sentimental, but to be honest Hux didn't recall that much of it.

The owl hooted contentedly and looked around for more food, and Hux poured out another handful and watched him eat. After a while he reached out and stroked the owl over his head. Wilhuff buffed his head up into his hand, brazenly seeking more contact, and with a sigh Hux relented.

"Go on, then," he said and leaned back in his chair so the old owl could hop closer and press against his chest, thrilling softly while Hux petted him. If the affection felt awkward, he ignored it. He could probably use the practice anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of trouble with this chapter. Getting it out it felt like passing a kidney stone (and I've done that, so I can say that with some authority) and it's a bit more sombre probably because of that. In the end I just had to wash my hands of it so I could move on. The next chapter is Christmas with Kylo's family so it will be a lot more light-hearted!
> 
> [Augurey](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Augurey) \- Irish Phoenix; a thin and mournful-looking bird who sings when it's about to rain.


End file.
